Leone's — Restaurant in Montclair

i went for the first time today because someone had recommended it to me. was waiting on 2 other people and they seated me at a nice table by the window. first the host/owner grabbed a chair from my table, smiling and saying he was just going to grab a chair. that was totally fine as there were 5 chairs and i only needed 3, though i felt it would’ve been kinder to ask rather than inform me. a mom with two kids came in and decided to play interior design simulator, moving tables around and eventually decided it wasn’t good enough and she wanted my table. the hostess/owners asked me to move, which i thought was so rude and unprofessional. they wouldn’t have felt entitled to do that if the rest of my party had arrived, but because i was alone they moved me to the center of the restaurant. their explanation was that she had a larger party coming in so they needed to merge my table with a smaller one, but honestly they could have very well merged the smaller table with the table in the center that they moved me to. they were exactly the same size, she just didn’t want to sit there. i sat at the new table with my back against the wall and the owners started teasing me about sitting in the back and asked if i wouldn’t be more comfortable sitting in one of the other seats. i would have been more comfortable if you didn’t make me move tables unnecessarily! i just paid for my drink and left, the weird cheekiness of the owners was just patronizing and strange. if you feel the need to crack jokes to lighten the mood of what you’re doing, maybe just...

Just finished dinning at this special place. Number 1:get use to the owner and staff welcoming you as if you had been there 100 times . It was my first visit. Number 2: get use to feeling as if you are the only party in the house. Number 3: get use to owner and staff actually paying attention to you, and accommodating you at the same time. ( I know this seems far fetched in the current tradition of restaurant staffs acting as if you're bothering them for simply asking where the bathroom is, but I'll convince you.) Number 4: get use to having food prepared with finesse and care. From the bread and dipping sauce, appetizers, entrees, and desserts, no detail was overlooked. Number 5: get use to feeling at ease about the time you spend there, for it seemed as if our table was simply for our party and the staff encouraged our conversations, even though we had finished desert and hour ago. Leone's is not just a place to eat...it is a destination, and even though it's an hour and half away, I believe it has become our go to place for the experience of dinning out. More than worth the travel time. A special note to the owner. I've met many owners of restaurants, but this is truly the first time I've felt so welcomed. And Terry, you are an exceptional asset to Leone's. Leone's is the answer to the mediocre fare so many of us have become all too familiar with. Thank you, and I hope to see you all again soon. Sue...

I’ve been to this place a few times now and i think i’ve formed a pretty good opinion on it. in the summer the outdoor seating is nice but service is slow. However in the winter in door seating is crazy. you have to wait in the tiny entrance along with other people waiting to be seated and rude doordashers and what not. While in this area i’ve witness the owner yelling at workers and throwing receipts at them they seem overwhelmed so the environment in the entrance is not pleasing but once being sat it’s always a lot to unpack. I go on the weekends when they have live music and it’s always a hit or miss. They can be loud and overwhelming but you can ask to sit in the other room just say no to the balcony because the service can be slow and sometimes it feels like the server forgets about us. But it is more private up there. they do nice happy birthdays with free deserts which is nice. The bathrooms are messy which is to be expected since it’s a single use bathroom per gender. the homemade drinks taste off and i had ask to have it remade and it still tasted bad and the tap water taste interesting your better off asking for bottled water. The food sometimes is bland but they have great calamari and the pizza is always good. Overall it’s not terrible but if your looking for somewhere great to eat in the montclair area your better off eating in the other 100 restaurants they have in a...